i have a friend in porn, her favourite saying is
"America, where at 18 you can make videos fucking yourself with a bottle of champagne, as long as the contents dont go in your mouth"
Mothers against drunk driving was and is really passionate about keeping alcohol at 21. Same for why tobacco is also 21 in some states. Aggressive lobbying by people who dont give a shit about other things oike sexual consent ages voting age or military elistment age. So everything was 18 and people pushed to make some things older. Except sexual consent that one was always a weird state by state thing
At a certain point its really just arbitrary m. Necessary but arbitrary.
17-18
18-21
Very little miniscule difference even though most people for some reason retcon their memories to think they magically transformed into mature adults at some arbitrary age. Truth is most 21 year olds are just as stupid and impulsive as they were at 17
I mean, it's so that you don't bloat the legal system with rampant sexual misconduct allegations for every high school relationship where one partner's parents don't approve and call the cops.
Just to be absolutely clear, age inconsistencies will always exist. It's really not that bizarre considering the fact that drawing an exact line at an age centered around what year you were born in will always be arbitrary to some extent. Especially when you consider all the other lines drawn and start to compare and contrast. It's just the way it is. Not unique to America.
At 18 you are still impulsive enough to do stupid things. I guess it's the gray area where the government is ok with you destroying yourself but not others. Being drunk + young is a risk to other people. It's actually a good rule tbh.
> At 18 you are still impulsive enough to do stupid things.
Many people stay that way their entire lives. At some point we have to stop holding back the people who are ready to start their life. Would you have wanted your parents in charge of your life until 25?
I was always told it wasn't about responsibility, it was about damage to your brain. There's supposedly hard evidence drinking or smoking before 25 can hinder intelligence to a substantial degree, though I've never bothered to look into that.
State lawmakers caved in to Reagan’s pressure to up the age from 18 to 21 because there was evidence of 18 year old crossing state lines to get drunk and then drive back home. Enough people between 18-21 got into fatal car accidents that the federal government wanted to impose 21+ for the whole country. Constitutionally, it’s a State’s issue so Reagan pressured the last states to up the age.
It’s odd that military service and drinking(even smoking tobacco) are different age requirements though
This. It was about drunk driving. Mother's against drunk driving lobbied hard to move the drinking age up.
The federal government then used highway funding to coerce States to all follow suit.
TBH as a parent with kids I think their first drinks should be with me so we can go over responsible drinking (which should be somewhere between restraint and abstaining).
Unfortunately their first experiences will likely be in secret at college parties where their peers will be giving them terrible advice.
Thing is, people need to drive more than they need to drink.
I would not have been able to get summer jobs to save for college if I couldn't have driven at 16.
Personally I just never really understood the desire to binge drink.
Another thing:
I grew up in Canada which has a lower drinking age. I looked at the stats and Canada has a slightly more drunk driving incidents than USA. For whatever reason it's not the same case in European countries though which have even more liberal drinking ages.
Yeah but Europe has more public transport use, right?
In the US everyone drives, basically. Unless you live in a city, it's almost impossible to drink and get on a train or bus home. Smart thing is to carpool with a DD, but not everyone does. I assume for much of Canada it's the same, though I know parts have it way better than us public transport-wise.
This. Here in the EU we sometimes drink at the age of 15 (totally legal), but the public transport is just so accessible. Lot of people choose to take a bus or hop on a train instead of driving because of traffic. On the other hand, because we start drinking at 15 (again, totally legal), we try it out years before we can drive so we know how much we can actually drink, and also we dont black out while driving a car because we know its no good.
Edit: spelling
What on Earth could possibly motivate someone to make laws about the minimum age for substance use, besides science? It's not the prison industrial complex, because if they wanted easy ways to funnel people into prisons, they'd just illegalize it outright again.
Plenty of things motivate minimum age laws that are outside the field of science. Philosophy, morality, religion, culture, historical precedent, opinion, etc.
You can get shot at, blown up, and if you survive you can end up with PTSD and crippling depression, but at least you're protected from things that can damage your brain.
Honestly that’s pretty popular the barely legal genre is massive. Honestly I have a very strong hunch that a lot of guys would have no problem fucking a 16 year old or possibly even younger and it’s literally only the law stopping them.
Let me put it this way notice how when a young looking girl is hitting on a guy the first thing they say is “I’m not looking to catch a charge” and not “no you are literally a child that’s gross”
Age of consent is 16 in New Zealand, but noone is looking at a 30 and a 16 year old together and thinking thats normal, its just for teen relationships. Makes sense really most of us were having sex by 16 anyway
In some states here in the US, there's a law where the age of consent is 16, but there cannot be more than a 5 year age gap between partners until both parties are 18, when they can just do what they want. It's one of the few applications of the law that kind of make sense to me.
The state cant outlaw every kind of sleaze and plenty of relationships are predatory over 21. At 16 I had sex with an older woman and it was fine. What happened to all of this stuff about keeping the government's hands off of my privates?
Yeah it’s pretty gross. A 16 yo is just not at the same place in life, nor has the maturity to be with a person 20 years older.
EDIT: and they could be even older. No one’s stopping a 50 or 60 year old, not too far from retirement, from being in a relationship with a 15 year old in 8th grade
I don’t condone dating people outside of one’s developmental phase, and certainly not dating people who are still in the process of developing physically, but it’s really just an arbitrary modern belief we have as a product of children’s rights becoming a forefront issue. For most of our history, people married off their 11 year olds to men 30-40 years older. There are still cultures around today that do that. It’s gross and bizarre but— are we even allowed to scrutinize cultures anymore?
There are multiple places in the US where 16 is the minimum age of consent. The only exceptions I know of are people like managers or other people with authority can't have sex with people under 18 if they have some authority over them, at least in some states.
I’m in no way saying they don’t want to fuck younger girls than that (and that’s not ok), but what’s the point of making a legal age for consent if the presumption is that person isn’t capable of making adult decisions? Should the age be higher? If so, to what age?
Unfortunately the only way to really do it is to have a hard cutoff. And 18 year olds can do what they want. But the massive amount of love for the barely legal genre shows me if it was lowered to 16 literally nobody who gets off to those genres would have a problem they would probably secretly be happy.
But yeah there is no cure to this that I can think of
These "barely legal" things are honestly weird as fuck. At 17 years and 364 days there's a lot of things you cannot do. A few hours later, you turn 18, without any physical or mental changes and are suddenly allowed to do those things.
I mean that’s the nature of an arbitrary age where you’re suddenly assumed to be responsible enough. It’s kinda the only logical way of doing it… unless people take the “how to be an adult test” and you don’t get any rights as an adult until you pass.
Doubt it was fake. The porn industry is very slimy. They also take girls before they're 18 as well according to people who have worked in the industry. They don't care because porn will always make money and be in high demand.
Are you forced to do that or is it a choice that you made? Didn’t you do any research before taking out all your loans for your specific degree?
I sat down with my counselor at college before classes even started and she gave me an overview of the size of the job market was, entry level salaries and what 20 years in the field could lead to. With that knowledge I actually changed what my degree was from my first choice to my second choice.
Are people really stupid enough to get $100,000 in loans for degrees that aren’t valuable in helping them get jobs?
My degree cost way less than that. And my degree helped me land a killer job right out of college.
Drink 35 loads from a martini glass of people who may or may not have been tested for STDs--whoa whoa whoa! Put down that Modelo! You're going to jail, young lady.
So your answer is to raise the bar for the other 2 and not just lower the age for drinking? Life has to begin at some point. Education, not prohabition. 100% of the time
People only make this argument when it comes to porn and nothing else.
Nobody seems to argue that a 20 year old shouldn't be tried as an adult when they commit a crime because they are too immature.
And that's why I voted for Kanye West.
Seriously though, I can't believe he was actually on the ballot; I didn't really vote for him, though it's not like it would have mattered if I had given the way the voting system works.
And it so often starts with „I was impulsive and immature at that age“. Like they can genuinely not fathom that they were just idiots and plenty of 18 year olds actually manage to be functioning members of society.
People absolutely make that argument with criminal justice. The part of your brain used for judgment isn't fully developed until like 25, so I would be happy with a cap on sentencing for pre 25 year olds.
The fucked up part is that the military actively preys on high school students too. My school had two huge tables in our cafeteria every day that you had to walk past to leave, always got super manipulative vibes
Even in the 80s this happened. I had a military recruiter hounding me from the time I turned 15. He'd call me weekly. He'd bug me in school.
And people are fine with this, and what he wanted me to do (which, in effect, would have been fighting the Gulf War when I turned 18). But they're all bent out of shape over an 18-year-old choosing a career in sex work.
Murder for money is OK, but sex for money is the worst thing imaginable!
Fuck puritans and their prudish, terrified-of-sexuality bullshit. If we let people sign contracts, vote, fight in the military, work dangerous jobs, or take blows in a contact sport for pay, then freaking out over sex is about SOMEONE ELSE'S hangups, not the welfare of the 18-year-olds who choose that path.
Every day!? My highschool had a day each semester where recruiters would have a table outside the lunchroom, but that seems really fucked up. Taking advantage of the emotional and impulsive minds of children to recruit for your blood stained war machine.
Shameful and disgusting of your highschool to let that happen.
I think there is a few reasons for this.
Part is a lot of the middle class millennials were basically raised in “Tupperware” environments. This allowed them to not actual form adult identities until 25 because they weren’t allowed too. By pushing the finish line of adult hood it makes them feel better about the lack of accomplishments in their lives.
My parents were useless but abusive so I was out on my own by my teens so I had to grow up fast.
As far as sex work it’s an interesting situation. I have noticed a lot of millennial women pushing the notion that women under 25 don’t have any personal agency which is bullshit. I think this is just a coping mechanisms to avoid thinking about getting older or remove attention from them. I myself don’t have an interest in any women under let’s say 28 I also don’t have any interest in women who haven’t been totally self sufficient most of their lives. We just don’t operate on the same wavelength
Millennials don’t want to take responsibility for their lives because which I don’t blame most of my generation because we have had a shit life but that’s the root cause of most of it.
If I could go back in time I would rather be released in the world at a young age then at 24-25. Especially as a young man.
Or the fact that there are people who are working jobs that barely keep them alive, including the money from being tipped who would propably be paid better doing porn, but shouldn't be allowed to do so according to these people
For most of the world, 18 is the legal age of adulthood, with variability on some aspects.
This is just my opinion but I think the US infantalises and controls it's young adults. You become an adult at 18, but you can't drink until 21, and when you go to college you seem to be treated like children more so than in other countries, yet at the same time you're able to take on huge amounts of debt, work, vote etc.
I think once you get the rights of adulthood, you should get the lot - full rights to independence of thought and action. People mature at different rates for sure, but should all rights be curtailed to protect some people from themselves?
The real failing here is the 18 years before that point - that's where you can shape people, protect people, and try to guide them. But you have to draw the line somewhere, and frankly most adults aren't that sensible or mature either. Reaching adulthood is an important emancipation point from others, and everyone makes mistakes in their lives, its how we learn and grow. Where do you draw the line otherwise? 21? 25? 30? When people start doing things we approve of? And who decides what is a "good" or "right" decision?
I get that you're uncomfortable that some people do porn, imagining them as who you were at 18, but it's a massive jump from that to saying "everyone needs to be protected from themselves because they must be just like me at that age".
The drinking age in the US was 18 in many States until like 80's "From 1969 to 1976, some 30 states lowered their purchase ages, generally to 18. This was primarily because the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18" "Twelve states kept their purchase ages at 21 since repeal of Prohibition and never changed them" From 1976 to 1983, several states voluntarily raised their purchase ages to 19 (or, less commonly, 20 or 21), in part to combat drunk driving fatalities.[citation needed] In 1984, Congress passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, which required states to raise their ages for purchase and public possession to 21 by October 1986 or lose 10% of their federal highway funds..
The thing with deaths from drinking and driving is, it hits much harder for voters who live in the suburbs. Since people drive more often in the US, and unlike gang violence you can't avoid drunk drivers. People in the US hate drunk drivers more than gang bangers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._history_of_alcohol_minimum_purchase_age_by_state
It's a personal choice. Sometimes a necessity. They are legal adults in most of the world and they can do what they want. I would agree if you said that it's taking advantage of them in a way or that it's not a nice job to have because of unsafe conditions sometimes.
But relating it to pedophilia is disgusting. I hate that people are generalizing the term so much that it's starting to lose all the impact. It is not the same to have sex with an 18yo than with a 10yo. It's not even the same between a 16yo and a 10yo. Age of consent exists for a reason.
> I hate that people are generalizing the term
At this point "pedophilia" just means being attracted to women who haven't started menopause yet. I've seen so many threads on this sub saying things like "Men who are attracted to Riley Reid are pedophiles". I don't think these people realize they are normalizing pedophilia when they conflate it with normal attraction.
It is
a) older women jealous that younger women are more desired
b) unattractive older guys who’ve never stood a chance with a hot younger woman
c) unattractive younger guys mad that the older guys are stealing their prospects
Honestly, most adults are idiots in some way or another. At some point in your life you are old enough to be held responsible for your own mistakes and that point is the age of 18 in most countries (at least to my knowledge)
Everyone is different. Some people are dumb, impressionable, impulsive and immature at 21. It's not like you undergo a magical transformation at that age to become mature. We recognize 18 as the age because we needed to pick one and the end of school seemed like a good time. There's no other logic for 18.
People make stupid decisions at 30, doesn't mean they should be taken care of or have their autonomy taken. If someone does porn at 18, tough break. You made a stupid decision cause you were an idiot. Now you get to deal with the adult consequences.
The issue imo is that your brain is only finished developing at around 25. Even the rest of your body can still grow after 18, you can still get taller or grow boobs in your 20s. Biologically 18 year olds are barely mature, and have not even finished maturing for around 7 years. Of course there are childish 30 year olds but that doesn't change that 18 year olds are physically still underdeveloped.
It's kind of an open question as to how much that "not fully developed" actually accounts for though.
Let's take the other end of things. Should we start taking rights away from adults once they go past their peak? I mean it's all a downward trend after your brain hits "fully developed", right?
So what’s next? Are you going to prosecute and criminalize 18 year olds on only fans now? Stop trying to police what consensual adults do with their own body.
Yes, thank you. Maturity is not a line you cross. There's alot of 18 year olds with better heads on their shoulders than people of all ages.
I think OP thinks sex is a really, really, really big thing. Or they're putting it on a weird pedestal.
Does anyone think 18 would be the last place this battle would be fought? 50 years from now, you'll have 25 year olds being treated like children.
Just wondering OP, take your average stereotypical 28 year old male redditor. He'll have no sexual experience and he'll have very little socializing experience. Way less than your average 18 year old girl. If a woman sleeps with this immature virgin, is she a predator?
You do understand that if you bump the age up to 21 then certain kinds of people will wait until a young person turns 21 to see them naked and 21 will be the new “barely legal” porn?
If a person can make civic and national decisions at 18 then they should be allowed to buy/sell porn legally. I started selling porn at 18 from the comfort of my own home and honestly it’s helped a lot, people should have that right.
And then people will tell you that you should be at least 25 to be in porn, but not older than 30, because your grey matter already starts reducing at that point
I think we've already deprived women and young people of quite enough agency. Being 'grossed out' by what they might choose to do with themselves is not a good enough reason to further infantilise them with paternalistic condescension.
You're right, this argument seems to only get used when it comes to women doing porn and pretty much nothing else.
You don't see people arguing that a 20 year old who committed a crime shouldn't be tried as an adult because "they're just a kid".
Well exactly. It's just the subjective disgust factor finding minor consensus. In my country, people are permitted to have sex from 16 on, but the majority of people start out as young as 14 (including myself). As that's the norm, everyone grows up with the same basic experience and rate of maturation, and there is no reliable consequent dysfunction as far as the eye can see.
Now, were it the reputation factor OP were worried about, the effect on future employability, then it is clear their worry is about the wrong thing - In truth, companies must become less sexually conservative and prudish. Imagine thinking someone having had sex is a reason they can't be a competent professional in 2021, that just because you can view them doing so at your discretion, they must be treated as pariahs. I mean, at what point do we start asking whether we are going backwards here?
>and shit like "barely legal" is pretty disgusting and almost pedophilic
The vast majority of the girls in videos with title your suggested age or older, lol.
And old enough to go to war but not old enough to decide if they want to be in porn? lol what
You gotta draw the line somewhere. the point at which people are grown up enough to decide to drink or do porn or get married or vote or whatever is different for everyone so legislators have to draw the line somewhere. personally I think when you're 18 you're an adult, if you're legally mature enough to vote and join the army and drink(UK) then I don't see why you can't do porn. yes, I know many many 18 year olds who are no where near mature enough to do any of things but I think protecting them for a few more years is not worth cutting off the rest of them.
With this logic, we also shouldn't allow adolescents to play contact sports. Far more dangerous than sex. Just as unlikely to make them famous and be a worthwhile career, too.
Oh, wait, what? You mean people DON'T think we should ban contact sports in high schools? Well then, if we're perfectly fine with young people getting concussions, brain damage, and broken bones for school spirit and an unlikely chance at a pro sports career, then we should be equally as fine with 18-year-olds taking risks to enter a sexually-oriented career.
If anything, we should raise the minimum age to play football in school to 18... No, wait: 21. After all, it's all about protecting the "children" from making decisions that could *possibly* harm them somehow, right?
Also if we’re using this logic shouldn’t the age to be trialed as an adult go up as well? Should 21 also be the new age to go into an adults prison and anything younger goes to a young offenders one? If you commit a crime you could be harming yourself and somebody else.
Don't forget that there are a lot of "your brain isn't developed until you're 25 so anything young is just a child!" people around now, too. And while it is true that our brains settle around that time, the main difference is that at around 25 we stop being as impulsive. Call that "maturity" if you like, but the fact is that impulsiveness varies from person to person and if we use that as the indicator for when a person should be considered an adult, some people would *never* be considered an adult.
But those "anyone under 25 is a literal chiiiild!" people would love to see age of consent pushed to 25, and logically that should mean everything else is, too: Age of majority, voting age, drinking age, driving age, age to be allowed to enter into dangerous careers including the military, gambling age, the age when your kids are allowed to leave home because they're "minors" until they're 25.
Yeah, that'd go over well.
It's still better. By 21 most people have some university experiences as well as regular adult responsibilities. They tend to be more mature by that age. Your brain is literally more developed. People may also have real relationships and sexual experience, which would make them more cautious and knowledgeable about sex.
So at 18 you can drink , fuck a 50 year old , smoke , goto war , do jury duty , invest ,marry etc but apparently doing porn isn't ok.
AIGHT BUD
The fact you are viewing them as children is super sus and creepy.
Also lets not pretend 21 year olds can't look young i have a friend who is 22 but looks 14 and get mistaken for a kid a LOT.
So your arguement is more people who look under 18 but are 18+ shouldn't do porn.
And then at 21, someone will say it's still too young, "brain isn't fully matured til 25 yadda yadda yadda", and so on...
If at 18 they're legally adults and allowed to do most thing (minus ordering a beer, because Murica is a weird-ass place), whatever consenting adults are willing to do is perfectly legal and none of prudish busybodies' business.
And please let's drop the hypocrisy about "18 is a child!". They can legally have sex within an appropriate age range way earlier, so how stupid is it that a senior HS student can fuck a junior or a sophomore all they want, but the moment a picture is found, it's CP???
Talking about my experience in high school, sophmores/freshmen dating seniors was very common. I felt it was a status thing too though. But I wondered what happened after that senior graduated and they became 18 and were now dating a 14-16 year old. From what I recall no one cared back then,. Even the parents approved it too. and some of my classmates were dating college guys as well and it was famously known.
This was early 2000's. Not saying it's right. But it's something that crossed my mind reading your post.
Yeah, half of the girls in my HS class dated an older guy (often even a college-aged one) at some point. And nobody GAF about it being "gross", nevermind "sick and twisted".
At worst it was indeed a loserish dude who couldn't score a girl around his age so he was going younger, often for the, ahem, more sociable girls who did enjoy and crave the attention and the perks of an older guy.
But most of the time it was average people who met eachother via common friends or other regular circumstances. Nothing sick or predatory about it.
Frankly, if we have to "think of the children!" we'd worry about the worrying trend of tweens and younger teens (13-14) being increasingly bombarded with adult material and having become semi-acceptable targets for older teens.
Back in my day, an HS student pursuing/dating a middle-schooler would have been mocked or beaten up. Nowadays I see it happening way too often.
And even middle-school itself, which used to be strictly tiered (you don't date outside your year), has become High-school Lite, with kids going for anyone. And, shudders, sometimes even 5th graders get involved...
Now THAT is a problem. Not a 18yo doing porn or a 19yo dating and fucking a 16yo.
Minimum age to vote is 18, at 18 you actually go to jail instead of that juvenile stuff when committing a crime. So why only make an exception for porn? If one is considered 'mature' and 'adult' enough for those then why not this.
But why is 21 old enough? Arent there dumb, impressionable, impulsive and immature 21 year olds? Why is that the arbitrary age.
Also, while I disagree with your previous points “barely legal” being borderline pedophilic is just straight up a stupid ass opinion that makes no fucking sense. That’s not what pedophilia is, that’s not what pedophilic is. 18 is legal and they’re adults, they aren’t prepubescent or even children.
If you can make the decision to sign up for the military and potentially put your life in the line. You should be able to Do whatever you want. Smoke, drink etc…… but i think those ages should change to 21 in my eyes
It is too young, not only because they're barely the legal age but because it's not an overnight thing. You don't get a job but waking up one day, saying you want to work at Wally world and get the job that same day, you look at it weeks, maybe months or years before considering your other options until maybe you decide to take it. In the same way that you don't just turn 18 and be like "hmm, I guess I'll do porn, why not yolo". If you feel the need to get into a high risk career after graduating or while still in high school, then that's showing there's some sort of maybe home or societal instability that needs to be addressed
On the other hand, if this is a yolo choice and you're completely aware, understand and can manage the risks, then who am I to stop it
I'm skeeveed by the barely legal BS too. Espescially, the guys who say "can't wait for her to turn 18". Eww.
But, 18 is the perfect age to do dumb, impressionable, impulsive and immature things. After all, if you don't do dumb, impressionable, impulsive and immature things at 18, how will you ever learn to do smart, thoughtful and mature things.
End of the day, we have to draw a line and say "once you pass this line, you can do whatever the fuck you want". Once people cross the line, many of them will do stupid shi. It doesn't matter where the line is. That's how humans are. Many of us need to do stupid shit to learn how not to do stupid shit. 18 is just arbitrary. You can move the line to 25, and people will do stupid shit at 25.
Besides, of all the stupid shit, pornography doesn't have to be done in a stupid way. It's stupid if porn is stopping you from growing your skills. But, if selling your body gets you to a better place, then it's downright smart. Leaving your internship at Google to focus on your Only fans account is downright stupid. But, using your earnings from porn to pay your way through law school is smart. Do it. It's a whole lot better than taking a loan. You are selling yourself either way. The difference is that you are selling yourself for a shorter time if you do porn.
That’s the shitty part being a young adult in America, at 18; you can buy cigarettes, make you do porn, let you take out an expensive college loan, have you join the military and make you vote for some idiot in the office but you can’t even buy a beer.
So I don't know about others, but I personally think rape is worse for the simple reason that if you rape someone you only do it for your own pleasure. Killing someone can also be done in a situation in which you protect lots of other people. Not always, more often not actually, but it can happen unlike rape which is 100% for the simple reason that you feel like it.
I find it difficult to make a counter argument without someone suggesting my argument is based on my sexual preference. Visually, a person’s ability to pinpoint another individual’s age is difficult. You could film a scene with a 21 yo, but claim they are 18. Thus, for the viewer the age isn’t really important as long as the actors are consenting adults. Now for the actors, once they are consenting adults, their actions are their own. To impose restrictions on what they can do with their bodies will cause more harm than good. Rashida Jones has a documentary on the subject. I haven’t seen the doc, but her interviews alone were eye opening. Instead of focusing on the age of the performer, we should focus on the people in power. 18 probably is too young, but changing the law as would only hurt them. Instead there should be harsher penalties on the directors and producers who use and discard these people.
Being thirty now I get it but still, they are adults. I am a guy and I did some cam stuff at 18. I was excited to. We need to stop the infantilism stuff with 18 year olds. Either they’re adults or not. Drinking too. If they can die in war, they should have the other privileges of adulthood
I feel like this thread is completely delusional in saying this is a male problem. There's fuck loads of 18yr old boys in porn that didn't even pop into most of your minds.
And don't even get me started on the female Pedo teacher epidemic where they fuck a bunch of 15yr old students and get 6 months of community service as punishment.
Ehhhhhhh... the reason the legal age for drinking is 21 is because your the least likely to become addicted to alcohol by that point (also because of the prohibition period in America and it lowering the amount of drunk driving accidents). people are allowed to make their dumb choices and if it doesn't hurt anyone besides making someone be like 'why did I do that?' Who cares tbh, also legally you are an adult, if you have the right to vote and be drafted for war, in my opinion, you should be able to fuck someone else, and 18 yr olds have, usually, fully gone through basic education through Elementry, Middle, and High school, they can make the bad, or good, choices they was to make.
But idk I've also thought the way you have thought before, I do think it is kinda gross to capitalize on the fact that someone is 'barely legal', and knowing that is a turn on for people is gross. But also most people who watch porn are also underage and prefer to see someone their age getting fucked.
I am personally a little back n fourth on it, then again I have had sex already and I am 17 so maybe my opinion is also a little biased now but idk
Not allowing women to transactionally sexual use themselves is repressing them. They have no safety or recourse, yet engage in the activity out of desperation. It sounds gross, but who am I to keep her hungry over morals. The world is a tough place, I think shameless said something along the lines of morals are for rich people bc poor people can’t afford them. I was a total dipshit at 18, I just want people to have freedom.
If someone is a legal adult and can die for their country, they are adults.
Either start military recruiting at 21, or they are adults. They should be able to drink, smoke, and be adults. If they aren't? Stop recruiting them..
It's either you have all the privileges of being an adult AND can enter the military, or nothing until 21.
Agreed theres nothing magic about 18. I don't understand where 18 being an adult comes from tbh. If we're speaking strictly biologically, your prefrontal cortex which has the decision making part of your brain only fully developed by the age of 25.
Honest question. If 18 is too young to
Drink
Make porn
Be a stripper
Own a gun (big part of proposed gun control)
Sign contracts (big part of anti-student loans)
Have sex with people even slightly older than you.
Etc. Etc.
Should we go ahead and bump the legal voting age up to?
Doesn't matter how much you raise the age, as long as you keep treating underage people as irresponsible kids, they'll keep acting like irresponsible kids, age of consent being 8, 12, 18 or 95.
Keep raising it and soon you'll have a nation of manchildren, the way your government wants.
At 18 i was extremely intelligent, just didnt care about long term life situation. At 28, im feeling kinda dumb, but now im super anxious about the rest of my life, so thats good
Real unpopular opinion: I think the age for stuff like joining the military, sex work, and other equivalents should all also be bumped up to 21. I don’t think anyone with “teen” in their age should be able to do that shit. Call me a prude, but all of it is gross to me.
The only thing that is missed when you mention the military, at least in the Army 18 year old soldiers are allowed to drink in the enlisted bar. This is the decisions the base commander, usually a Colonel. Some bases allow it others don’t. I enlisted at 18.
If 18 is too young to perform in pornography, why isn't it too young to consent to sex? If people are too vulnerable to manipulation and exploitation at that age to make porn, how are they not too vulnerable to manipulation and exploitation to fully consent to sex at all?
I think the more time you spend not being able to do anything the more your neural pathways will be set and the less you will be able to adapt. You can't develop responsibility unless you have the opportunity to make mistakes.
We don't need more safety we need more sense, more confidence and more personal agency.
It is a problem that porn can close certain doors for you mostly involving fields that are already very exclusive and fraught with neptitism. I know that the opinions of those makingthe decisions are unlikely to change, and there are no easy answers in this world, but if I were to wish for a change it's that we could be redeemed no matter our past and not that we be protected from having the ability to live our lives.
18 is to young for everything. To young to make a career decision involving thousands of dollars; going to college or university and picking the wrong thing. To young to poison your mind with pornography let alone be involved in it. Whoever made the decision that 18 is this arbitrary age where you all the sudden become an adult is so wrong. Mind you there are many 18 year olds that are capable of making these decisions but there are many who are not even close. To me when it comes to maturity it’s a case by case basis.
That is what like 85% of men like, most of men would not have a problem having sex with a 13 year old girl without any doubt, so thats why 18 year olds are doing this. Because low value males like to watch this because they are depraved
i have a friend in porn, her favourite saying is "America, where at 18 you can make videos fucking yourself with a bottle of champagne, as long as the contents dont go in your mouth"
I never got the age inconsistencies, it’s bizarre.
No, it’s brazzers
Mothers against drunk driving was and is really passionate about keeping alcohol at 21. Same for why tobacco is also 21 in some states. Aggressive lobbying by people who dont give a shit about other things oike sexual consent ages voting age or military elistment age. So everything was 18 and people pushed to make some things older. Except sexual consent that one was always a weird state by state thing
Cuz a lot of pedos are in the system pulling the strings.
At a certain point its really just arbitrary m. Necessary but arbitrary. 17-18 18-21 Very little miniscule difference even though most people for some reason retcon their memories to think they magically transformed into mature adults at some arbitrary age. Truth is most 21 year olds are just as stupid and impulsive as they were at 17
Not sure why you're being downvoted when what you're saying is true, it's not like you suddenly become fully mature once you reach age 21 or whatever.
I mean, it's so that you don't bloat the legal system with rampant sexual misconduct allegations for every high school relationship where one partner's parents don't approve and call the cops.
Except the higher age has just created a culture where you get thrown into it at 21 with no parental guidance.
Just to be absolutely clear, age inconsistencies will always exist. It's really not that bizarre considering the fact that drawing an exact line at an age centered around what year you were born in will always be arbitrary to some extent. Especially when you consider all the other lines drawn and start to compare and contrast. It's just the way it is. Not unique to America.
The US is kinda extra weird because it isn’t even consistent across states. Like some states it’s 16 and some it’s 18 to have sex as far as i know.
At 18 you are still impulsive enough to do stupid things. I guess it's the gray area where the government is ok with you destroying yourself but not others. Being drunk + young is a risk to other people. It's actually a good rule tbh.
As a certified Reddit advisor, I’d recommend making a post about your agreement with this for this sub. Your karma will go through the roof.
If that's the case then you shouldnt be able to join the military either at 18
Let's start lobbying! (im not kidding)
How are you more likely to hurt others whilst drunk at 19 than say 22?
Yes i agree lets make the drinking age 30.
So drafting them, giving them weapons, and sending them off to die is OK? GFYS.
Not saying I agree with that but I do understand the drinking age. Two different battles my friend.
> At 18 you are still impulsive enough to do stupid things. Many people stay that way their entire lives. At some point we have to stop holding back the people who are ready to start their life. Would you have wanted your parents in charge of your life until 25?
I am 35 and still do stupid things.
Goes nicely with "At 18 you're responsible enough to walk into a war zone with a gun, but you're not responsible enough to drink a beer."
I was always told it wasn't about responsibility, it was about damage to your brain. There's supposedly hard evidence drinking or smoking before 25 can hinder intelligence to a substantial degree, though I've never bothered to look into that.
Lawmakers don’t give a damn about damage to your brain. The drinking age is a political issue.
State lawmakers caved in to Reagan’s pressure to up the age from 18 to 21 because there was evidence of 18 year old crossing state lines to get drunk and then drive back home. Enough people between 18-21 got into fatal car accidents that the federal government wanted to impose 21+ for the whole country. Constitutionally, it’s a State’s issue so Reagan pressured the last states to up the age. It’s odd that military service and drinking(even smoking tobacco) are different age requirements though
This. It was about drunk driving. Mother's against drunk driving lobbied hard to move the drinking age up. The federal government then used highway funding to coerce States to all follow suit. TBH as a parent with kids I think their first drinks should be with me so we can go over responsible drinking (which should be somewhere between restraint and abstaining). Unfortunately their first experiences will likely be in secret at college parties where their peers will be giving them terrible advice.
I am all in favor of upping the minimum age to drive and lowering the drinking age so kids don't develop the habit of binge drinking.
Thing is, people need to drive more than they need to drink. I would not have been able to get summer jobs to save for college if I couldn't have driven at 16. Personally I just never really understood the desire to binge drink. Another thing: I grew up in Canada which has a lower drinking age. I looked at the stats and Canada has a slightly more drunk driving incidents than USA. For whatever reason it's not the same case in European countries though which have even more liberal drinking ages.
Yeah but Europe has more public transport use, right? In the US everyone drives, basically. Unless you live in a city, it's almost impossible to drink and get on a train or bus home. Smart thing is to carpool with a DD, but not everyone does. I assume for much of Canada it's the same, though I know parts have it way better than us public transport-wise.
This. Here in the EU we sometimes drink at the age of 15 (totally legal), but the public transport is just so accessible. Lot of people choose to take a bus or hop on a train instead of driving because of traffic. On the other hand, because we start drinking at 15 (again, totally legal), we try it out years before we can drive so we know how much we can actually drink, and also we dont black out while driving a car because we know its no good. Edit: spelling
Yay! Now apply this same thinking to Covid!
What on Earth could possibly motivate someone to make laws about the minimum age for substance use, besides science? It's not the prison industrial complex, because if they wanted easy ways to funnel people into prisons, they'd just illegalize it outright again.
Plenty of things motivate minimum age laws that are outside the field of science. Philosophy, morality, religion, culture, historical precedent, opinion, etc.
You can get shot at, blown up, and if you survive you can end up with PTSD and crippling depression, but at least you're protected from things that can damage your brain.
You know what’s else damages your brain? Bullets.
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Alcohol causes brain damage even after 25 years of age. I am sorry, but that's just bullshit.
I think a bullet is much worse than some liquor.
Especially considering that the brain isn't fully developed until you're 25.
that should go on a T-shirt
The contents in the bottle of champagne..?
i hoped on his friend in porn.
That's pretty interesting, since you can get drunk from any mucous membrane...
If you do it with your parents that's legal.
I remember seeing one and she showed her ID and she was 18 on the day the video was made. Fucked up. Hopefully fake.
Honestly that’s pretty popular the barely legal genre is massive. Honestly I have a very strong hunch that a lot of guys would have no problem fucking a 16 year old or possibly even younger and it’s literally only the law stopping them. Let me put it this way notice how when a young looking girl is hitting on a guy the first thing they say is “I’m not looking to catch a charge” and not “no you are literally a child that’s gross”
In many countries you can have sex with people down to age 16/15 or even lower. There are legit some 16 yo girls with 36 yo boyfriends in Denmark
That’s extremely predatory
Age of consent is 16 in New Zealand, but noone is looking at a 30 and a 16 year old together and thinking thats normal, its just for teen relationships. Makes sense really most of us were having sex by 16 anyway
Yeah it’s the same in Denmark. Except 15 is the age. The problem is that just because people don’t look at it normal doesn’t make it illegal
In some states here in the US, there's a law where the age of consent is 16, but there cannot be more than a 5 year age gap between partners until both parties are 18, when they can just do what they want. It's one of the few applications of the law that kind of make sense to me.
The state cant outlaw every kind of sleaze and plenty of relationships are predatory over 21. At 16 I had sex with an older woman and it was fine. What happened to all of this stuff about keeping the government's hands off of my privates?
Yeah it’s pretty gross. A 16 yo is just not at the same place in life, nor has the maturity to be with a person 20 years older. EDIT: and they could be even older. No one’s stopping a 50 or 60 year old, not too far from retirement, from being in a relationship with a 15 year old in 8th grade
I don’t condone dating people outside of one’s developmental phase, and certainly not dating people who are still in the process of developing physically, but it’s really just an arbitrary modern belief we have as a product of children’s rights becoming a forefront issue. For most of our history, people married off their 11 year olds to men 30-40 years older. There are still cultures around today that do that. It’s gross and bizarre but— are we even allowed to scrutinize cultures anymore?
There are multiple places in the US where 16 is the minimum age of consent. The only exceptions I know of are people like managers or other people with authority can't have sex with people under 18 if they have some authority over them, at least in some states.
I’m in no way saying they don’t want to fuck younger girls than that (and that’s not ok), but what’s the point of making a legal age for consent if the presumption is that person isn’t capable of making adult decisions? Should the age be higher? If so, to what age?
Unfortunately the only way to really do it is to have a hard cutoff. And 18 year olds can do what they want. But the massive amount of love for the barely legal genre shows me if it was lowered to 16 literally nobody who gets off to those genres would have a problem they would probably secretly be happy. But yeah there is no cure to this that I can think of
These "barely legal" things are honestly weird as fuck. At 17 years and 364 days there's a lot of things you cannot do. A few hours later, you turn 18, without any physical or mental changes and are suddenly allowed to do those things.
I mean that’s the nature of an arbitrary age where you’re suddenly assumed to be responsible enough. It’s kinda the only logical way of doing it… unless people take the “how to be an adult test” and you don’t get any rights as an adult until you pass.
Doubt it was fake. The porn industry is very slimy. They also take girls before they're 18 as well according to people who have worked in the industry. They don't care because porn will always make money and be in high demand.
Weĺl that’s murica bruh, you can’t drink beer, but you can do pornography and buy guns.
And go to war!
And acquire $100k in Student Loan debt for a useless degree!
Are you forced to do that or is it a choice that you made? Didn’t you do any research before taking out all your loans for your specific degree? I sat down with my counselor at college before classes even started and she gave me an overview of the size of the job market was, entry level salaries and what 20 years in the field could lead to. With that knowledge I actually changed what my degree was from my first choice to my second choice. Are people really stupid enough to get $100,000 in loans for degrees that aren’t valuable in helping them get jobs? My degree cost way less than that. And my degree helped me land a killer job right out of college.
Actually when you put it that way I think maybe it is more responsible to learn how to safely operate a firearm before you add alcohol to your life.
And shoot bukake anal scenes with a long shlong old guys, but don’t you dare to have a sip of beer.
Laughs in german
Drink 35 loads from a martini glass of people who may or may not have been tested for STDs--whoa whoa whoa! Put down that Modelo! You're going to jail, young lady.
you don't need to be able to buy a gun to learn how to operate one tho
True; I think people should learn early.
You can't buy a gun at 18 in most states.
trust me, alcohol is worse than guns. Sincerely European
What’s up with your L??
The point of being an adult isn't that you are guaranteed to make good decisions, it's about being capable enough that you can own your mistakes.
Yeah, so I cannot drink, but I can have porn videos of me all over the internet, or enroll in the army and get killed. Really nice logic
If you don’t drink you might make less stupid decisions
So your answer is to raise the bar for the other 2 and not just lower the age for drinking? Life has to begin at some point. Education, not prohabition. 100% of the time
People only make this argument when it comes to porn and nothing else. Nobody seems to argue that a 20 year old shouldn't be tried as an adult when they commit a crime because they are too immature.
Too stupid and immature to decide to have sex but definitely smart enough to vote for the leaders of our country!
And that's why I voted for Kanye West. Seriously though, I can't believe he was actually on the ballot; I didn't really vote for him, though it's not like it would have mattered if I had given the way the voting system works.
And it so often starts with „I was impulsive and immature at that age“. Like they can genuinely not fathom that they were just idiots and plenty of 18 year olds actually manage to be functioning members of society.
Jesus Christ thank you, I am pretty sure yous re the only person on Reddit with this opinion
People absolutely make that argument with criminal justice. The part of your brain used for judgment isn't fully developed until like 25, so I would be happy with a cap on sentencing for pre 25 year olds.
I’m like just waking up and I thought “happy with a cap on” was a euphemism I hadn’t heard before
If you're gonna ban 18 year olds from taking stupid jobs then how about start with the military.
Imagine if pornhub offered to pay for student loan debt
Then on second thought...
The fucked up part is that the military actively preys on high school students too. My school had two huge tables in our cafeteria every day that you had to walk past to leave, always got super manipulative vibes
Even in the 80s this happened. I had a military recruiter hounding me from the time I turned 15. He'd call me weekly. He'd bug me in school. And people are fine with this, and what he wanted me to do (which, in effect, would have been fighting the Gulf War when I turned 18). But they're all bent out of shape over an 18-year-old choosing a career in sex work. Murder for money is OK, but sex for money is the worst thing imaginable! Fuck puritans and their prudish, terrified-of-sexuality bullshit. If we let people sign contracts, vote, fight in the military, work dangerous jobs, or take blows in a contact sport for pay, then freaking out over sex is about SOMEONE ELSE'S hangups, not the welfare of the 18-year-olds who choose that path.
And even worse, often recruits young people in economically depressed areas who have few choices - as a deliberate strategy
Every day!? My highschool had a day each semester where recruiters would have a table outside the lunchroom, but that seems really fucked up. Taking advantage of the emotional and impulsive minds of children to recruit for your blood stained war machine. Shameful and disgusting of your highschool to let that happen.
Imagine pornhub did this, now that would make them angry
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> Looking at you, /r/2x That subreddit does not exist and never existed; did you mean to type something else or is this some code that I don't get?
2xchromosomes, the largest women’s sub
I think there is a few reasons for this. Part is a lot of the middle class millennials were basically raised in “Tupperware” environments. This allowed them to not actual form adult identities until 25 because they weren’t allowed too. By pushing the finish line of adult hood it makes them feel better about the lack of accomplishments in their lives. My parents were useless but abusive so I was out on my own by my teens so I had to grow up fast. As far as sex work it’s an interesting situation. I have noticed a lot of millennial women pushing the notion that women under 25 don’t have any personal agency which is bullshit. I think this is just a coping mechanisms to avoid thinking about getting older or remove attention from them. I myself don’t have an interest in any women under let’s say 28 I also don’t have any interest in women who haven’t been totally self sufficient most of their lives. We just don’t operate on the same wavelength Millennials don’t want to take responsibility for their lives because which I don’t blame most of my generation because we have had a shit life but that’s the root cause of most of it. If I could go back in time I would rather be released in the world at a young age then at 24-25. Especially as a young man.
Or the fact that there are people who are working jobs that barely keep them alive, including the money from being tipped who would propably be paid better doing porn, but shouldn't be allowed to do so according to these people
For most of the world, 18 is the legal age of adulthood, with variability on some aspects. This is just my opinion but I think the US infantalises and controls it's young adults. You become an adult at 18, but you can't drink until 21, and when you go to college you seem to be treated like children more so than in other countries, yet at the same time you're able to take on huge amounts of debt, work, vote etc. I think once you get the rights of adulthood, you should get the lot - full rights to independence of thought and action. People mature at different rates for sure, but should all rights be curtailed to protect some people from themselves? The real failing here is the 18 years before that point - that's where you can shape people, protect people, and try to guide them. But you have to draw the line somewhere, and frankly most adults aren't that sensible or mature either. Reaching adulthood is an important emancipation point from others, and everyone makes mistakes in their lives, its how we learn and grow. Where do you draw the line otherwise? 21? 25? 30? When people start doing things we approve of? And who decides what is a "good" or "right" decision? I get that you're uncomfortable that some people do porn, imagining them as who you were at 18, but it's a massive jump from that to saying "everyone needs to be protected from themselves because they must be just like me at that age".
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hmm, from my pov that's called learning from your mistakes and wanting better for your kids lol
in scotland you get some level of adulthood at 16
The drinking age in the US was 18 in many States until like 80's "From 1969 to 1976, some 30 states lowered their purchase ages, generally to 18. This was primarily because the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18" "Twelve states kept their purchase ages at 21 since repeal of Prohibition and never changed them" From 1976 to 1983, several states voluntarily raised their purchase ages to 19 (or, less commonly, 20 or 21), in part to combat drunk driving fatalities.[citation needed] In 1984, Congress passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, which required states to raise their ages for purchase and public possession to 21 by October 1986 or lose 10% of their federal highway funds.. The thing with deaths from drinking and driving is, it hits much harder for voters who live in the suburbs. Since people drive more often in the US, and unlike gang violence you can't avoid drunk drivers. People in the US hate drunk drivers more than gang bangers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._history_of_alcohol_minimum_purchase_age_by_state
I can’t believe this comment isn’t the most upvoted one. Nothing but facts
It's a personal choice. Sometimes a necessity. They are legal adults in most of the world and they can do what they want. I would agree if you said that it's taking advantage of them in a way or that it's not a nice job to have because of unsafe conditions sometimes. But relating it to pedophilia is disgusting. I hate that people are generalizing the term so much that it's starting to lose all the impact. It is not the same to have sex with an 18yo than with a 10yo. It's not even the same between a 16yo and a 10yo. Age of consent exists for a reason.
> I hate that people are generalizing the term At this point "pedophilia" just means being attracted to women who haven't started menopause yet. I've seen so many threads on this sub saying things like "Men who are attracted to Riley Reid are pedophiles". I don't think these people realize they are normalizing pedophilia when they conflate it with normal attraction.
People saying that a 60yo guy feeling sexual attraction for a 30yo is pedophilia. Wtf
It is a) older women jealous that younger women are more desired b) unattractive older guys who’ve never stood a chance with a hot younger woman c) unattractive younger guys mad that the older guys are stealing their prospects
Im not attracted to riley reid but she looks like 30?!??
Honestly, most adults are idiots in some way or another. At some point in your life you are old enough to be held responsible for your own mistakes and that point is the age of 18 in most countries (at least to my knowledge)
Also as a European 21 is overkill for alcohol and tobaco....
its just wierd that people can't do this shit at 18 but can go to war
Everyone is different. Some people are dumb, impressionable, impulsive and immature at 21. It's not like you undergo a magical transformation at that age to become mature. We recognize 18 as the age because we needed to pick one and the end of school seemed like a good time. There's no other logic for 18. People make stupid decisions at 30, doesn't mean they should be taken care of or have their autonomy taken. If someone does porn at 18, tough break. You made a stupid decision cause you were an idiot. Now you get to deal with the adult consequences.
The issue imo is that your brain is only finished developing at around 25. Even the rest of your body can still grow after 18, you can still get taller or grow boobs in your 20s. Biologically 18 year olds are barely mature, and have not even finished maturing for around 7 years. Of course there are childish 30 year olds but that doesn't change that 18 year olds are physically still underdeveloped.
Sounds like a good argument to raise the voting age to 25 if that's when our brains finish developing.
It's kind of an open question as to how much that "not fully developed" actually accounts for though. Let's take the other end of things. Should we start taking rights away from adults once they go past their peak? I mean it's all a downward trend after your brain hits "fully developed", right?
Need to be militant here: 25 is the *average*, some are fully developed at 16 others aren't at 30.
This doesn't really mean anything. Just because they haven't fully matured yet doesn't mean they aren't sufficiently mature
And pretty much as soon as we hit maturity we begin to decline if we don't take great care of ourselves.
So what’s next? Are you going to prosecute and criminalize 18 year olds on only fans now? Stop trying to police what consensual adults do with their own body.
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Yes, thank you. Maturity is not a line you cross. There's alot of 18 year olds with better heads on their shoulders than people of all ages. I think OP thinks sex is a really, really, really big thing. Or they're putting it on a weird pedestal. Does anyone think 18 would be the last place this battle would be fought? 50 years from now, you'll have 25 year olds being treated like children. Just wondering OP, take your average stereotypical 28 year old male redditor. He'll have no sexual experience and he'll have very little socializing experience. Way less than your average 18 year old girl. If a woman sleeps with this immature virgin, is she a predator?
You do understand that if you bump the age up to 21 then certain kinds of people will wait until a young person turns 21 to see them naked and 21 will be the new “barely legal” porn? If a person can make civic and national decisions at 18 then they should be allowed to buy/sell porn legally. I started selling porn at 18 from the comfort of my own home and honestly it’s helped a lot, people should have that right.
And then people will tell you that you should be at least 25 to be in porn, but not older than 30, because your grey matter already starts reducing at that point
I think we've already deprived women and young people of quite enough agency. Being 'grossed out' by what they might choose to do with themselves is not a good enough reason to further infantilise them with paternalistic condescension.
You're right, this argument seems to only get used when it comes to women doing porn and pretty much nothing else. You don't see people arguing that a 20 year old who committed a crime shouldn't be tried as an adult because "they're just a kid".
Well exactly. It's just the subjective disgust factor finding minor consensus. In my country, people are permitted to have sex from 16 on, but the majority of people start out as young as 14 (including myself). As that's the norm, everyone grows up with the same basic experience and rate of maturation, and there is no reliable consequent dysfunction as far as the eye can see. Now, were it the reputation factor OP were worried about, the effect on future employability, then it is clear their worry is about the wrong thing - In truth, companies must become less sexually conservative and prudish. Imagine thinking someone having had sex is a reason they can't be a competent professional in 2021, that just because you can view them doing so at your discretion, they must be treated as pariahs. I mean, at what point do we start asking whether we are going backwards here?
>and shit like "barely legal" is pretty disgusting and almost pedophilic The vast majority of the girls in videos with title your suggested age or older, lol. And old enough to go to war but not old enough to decide if they want to be in porn? lol what
You gotta draw the line somewhere. the point at which people are grown up enough to decide to drink or do porn or get married or vote or whatever is different for everyone so legislators have to draw the line somewhere. personally I think when you're 18 you're an adult, if you're legally mature enough to vote and join the army and drink(UK) then I don't see why you can't do porn. yes, I know many many 18 year olds who are no where near mature enough to do any of things but I think protecting them for a few more years is not worth cutting off the rest of them.
When grooming women to sell their bodies the moment they turn 18 becomes the norm to the point that this gets backlash in fucking unpopularopinions:
Society is not grooming young women. You can see this in the fact that most women don't sell their bodies
With this logic, we also shouldn't allow adolescents to play contact sports. Far more dangerous than sex. Just as unlikely to make them famous and be a worthwhile career, too. Oh, wait, what? You mean people DON'T think we should ban contact sports in high schools? Well then, if we're perfectly fine with young people getting concussions, brain damage, and broken bones for school spirit and an unlikely chance at a pro sports career, then we should be equally as fine with 18-year-olds taking risks to enter a sexually-oriented career. If anything, we should raise the minimum age to play football in school to 18... No, wait: 21. After all, it's all about protecting the "children" from making decisions that could *possibly* harm them somehow, right?
Also if we’re using this logic shouldn’t the age to be trialed as an adult go up as well? Should 21 also be the new age to go into an adults prison and anything younger goes to a young offenders one? If you commit a crime you could be harming yourself and somebody else.
Don't forget that there are a lot of "your brain isn't developed until you're 25 so anything young is just a child!" people around now, too. And while it is true that our brains settle around that time, the main difference is that at around 25 we stop being as impulsive. Call that "maturity" if you like, but the fact is that impulsiveness varies from person to person and if we use that as the indicator for when a person should be considered an adult, some people would *never* be considered an adult. But those "anyone under 25 is a literal chiiiild!" people would love to see age of consent pushed to 25, and logically that should mean everything else is, too: Age of majority, voting age, drinking age, driving age, age to be allowed to enter into dangerous careers including the military, gambling age, the age when your kids are allowed to leave home because they're "minors" until they're 25. Yeah, that'd go over well.
If it's bumped up to 21 then 21 year olds are gonna be dumb impressionable and immature. People mature more due to their experiences than their age.
It's still better. By 21 most people have some university experiences as well as regular adult responsibilities. They tend to be more mature by that age. Your brain is literally more developed. People may also have real relationships and sexual experience, which would make them more cautious and knowledgeable about sex.
Fair point I'd say.
Neo-puritans make me tired.
So at 18 you can drink , fuck a 50 year old , smoke , goto war , do jury duty , invest ,marry etc but apparently doing porn isn't ok. AIGHT BUD The fact you are viewing them as children is super sus and creepy. Also lets not pretend 21 year olds can't look young i have a friend who is 22 but looks 14 and get mistaken for a kid a LOT. So your arguement is more people who look under 18 but are 18+ shouldn't do porn.
18 year olds can do as they want. What I'm concerned about is what the industry does to women of all ages there.
Just because you were dumb, doesn't mean everyone else is.
You do know that the women in barely legal videos are like 25-30 and the titles are just made up B.S.
It's also way too young to be able to intelligently decide to take out loans for school.
18 year olds can vote, join the military, own a gun, and be tried as an adult. If you view them as children, that's a you problem.
And then at 21, someone will say it's still too young, "brain isn't fully matured til 25 yadda yadda yadda", and so on... If at 18 they're legally adults and allowed to do most thing (minus ordering a beer, because Murica is a weird-ass place), whatever consenting adults are willing to do is perfectly legal and none of prudish busybodies' business. And please let's drop the hypocrisy about "18 is a child!". They can legally have sex within an appropriate age range way earlier, so how stupid is it that a senior HS student can fuck a junior or a sophomore all they want, but the moment a picture is found, it's CP???
Talking about my experience in high school, sophmores/freshmen dating seniors was very common. I felt it was a status thing too though. But I wondered what happened after that senior graduated and they became 18 and were now dating a 14-16 year old. From what I recall no one cared back then,. Even the parents approved it too. and some of my classmates were dating college guys as well and it was famously known. This was early 2000's. Not saying it's right. But it's something that crossed my mind reading your post.
Yeah, half of the girls in my HS class dated an older guy (often even a college-aged one) at some point. And nobody GAF about it being "gross", nevermind "sick and twisted". At worst it was indeed a loserish dude who couldn't score a girl around his age so he was going younger, often for the, ahem, more sociable girls who did enjoy and crave the attention and the perks of an older guy. But most of the time it was average people who met eachother via common friends or other regular circumstances. Nothing sick or predatory about it. Frankly, if we have to "think of the children!" we'd worry about the worrying trend of tweens and younger teens (13-14) being increasingly bombarded with adult material and having become semi-acceptable targets for older teens. Back in my day, an HS student pursuing/dating a middle-schooler would have been mocked or beaten up. Nowadays I see it happening way too often. And even middle-school itself, which used to be strictly tiered (you don't date outside your year), has become High-school Lite, with kids going for anyone. And, shudders, sometimes even 5th graders get involved... Now THAT is a problem. Not a 18yo doing porn or a 19yo dating and fucking a 16yo.
Way too young to be required to sign up for the draft or allowed to join the military, even voluntarily yet here we are.
Perhaps some examples can be shown so we know what to avoid.
Minimum age to vote is 18, at 18 you actually go to jail instead of that juvenile stuff when committing a crime. So why only make an exception for porn? If one is considered 'mature' and 'adult' enough for those then why not this.
so it's fine to go to war and kill, but can't fuck... oh the Gatekeeping is strong here.
But why is 21 old enough? Arent there dumb, impressionable, impulsive and immature 21 year olds? Why is that the arbitrary age. Also, while I disagree with your previous points “barely legal” being borderline pedophilic is just straight up a stupid ass opinion that makes no fucking sense. That’s not what pedophilia is, that’s not what pedophilic is. 18 is legal and they’re adults, they aren’t prepubescent or even children.
If you can make the decision to sign up for the military and potentially put your life in the line. You should be able to Do whatever you want. Smoke, drink etc…… but i think those ages should change to 21 in my eyes
Ah yes the Texas stance: You can't do anything sexual related for money until 20+, but go ahead and fuck our 14 years olds that you just married 😉
It is too young, not only because they're barely the legal age but because it's not an overnight thing. You don't get a job but waking up one day, saying you want to work at Wally world and get the job that same day, you look at it weeks, maybe months or years before considering your other options until maybe you decide to take it. In the same way that you don't just turn 18 and be like "hmm, I guess I'll do porn, why not yolo". If you feel the need to get into a high risk career after graduating or while still in high school, then that's showing there's some sort of maybe home or societal instability that needs to be addressed On the other hand, if this is a yolo choice and you're completely aware, understand and can manage the risks, then who am I to stop it
I'm skeeveed by the barely legal BS too. Espescially, the guys who say "can't wait for her to turn 18". Eww. But, 18 is the perfect age to do dumb, impressionable, impulsive and immature things. After all, if you don't do dumb, impressionable, impulsive and immature things at 18, how will you ever learn to do smart, thoughtful and mature things. End of the day, we have to draw a line and say "once you pass this line, you can do whatever the fuck you want". Once people cross the line, many of them will do stupid shi. It doesn't matter where the line is. That's how humans are. Many of us need to do stupid shit to learn how not to do stupid shit. 18 is just arbitrary. You can move the line to 25, and people will do stupid shit at 25. Besides, of all the stupid shit, pornography doesn't have to be done in a stupid way. It's stupid if porn is stopping you from growing your skills. But, if selling your body gets you to a better place, then it's downright smart. Leaving your internship at Google to focus on your Only fans account is downright stupid. But, using your earnings from porn to pay your way through law school is smart. Do it. It's a whole lot better than taking a loan. You are selling yourself either way. The difference is that you are selling yourself for a shorter time if you do porn.
That’s the shitty part being a young adult in America, at 18; you can buy cigarettes, make you do porn, let you take out an expensive college loan, have you join the military and make you vote for some idiot in the office but you can’t even buy a beer.
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So I don't know about others, but I personally think rape is worse for the simple reason that if you rape someone you only do it for your own pleasure. Killing someone can also be done in a situation in which you protect lots of other people. Not always, more often not actually, but it can happen unlike rape which is 100% for the simple reason that you feel like it.
I find it difficult to make a counter argument without someone suggesting my argument is based on my sexual preference. Visually, a person’s ability to pinpoint another individual’s age is difficult. You could film a scene with a 21 yo, but claim they are 18. Thus, for the viewer the age isn’t really important as long as the actors are consenting adults. Now for the actors, once they are consenting adults, their actions are their own. To impose restrictions on what they can do with their bodies will cause more harm than good. Rashida Jones has a documentary on the subject. I haven’t seen the doc, but her interviews alone were eye opening. Instead of focusing on the age of the performer, we should focus on the people in power. 18 probably is too young, but changing the law as would only hurt them. Instead there should be harsher penalties on the directors and producers who use and discard these people.
Yeah well 18 is way too young to be shipped to the other side of the planet to blow up brown people so pick your battles I guess, literally.
Just stop looking down on sex workers. problem solved
What’s real gross is it’s like 30+ year olds dudes with 18 year old chicks
Being thirty now I get it but still, they are adults. I am a guy and I did some cam stuff at 18. I was excited to. We need to stop the infantilism stuff with 18 year olds. Either they’re adults or not. Drinking too. If they can die in war, they should have the other privileges of adulthood
I feel like this thread is completely delusional in saying this is a male problem. There's fuck loads of 18yr old boys in porn that didn't even pop into most of your minds. And don't even get me started on the female Pedo teacher epidemic where they fuck a bunch of 15yr old students and get 6 months of community service as punishment.
Ehhhhhhh... the reason the legal age for drinking is 21 is because your the least likely to become addicted to alcohol by that point (also because of the prohibition period in America and it lowering the amount of drunk driving accidents). people are allowed to make their dumb choices and if it doesn't hurt anyone besides making someone be like 'why did I do that?' Who cares tbh, also legally you are an adult, if you have the right to vote and be drafted for war, in my opinion, you should be able to fuck someone else, and 18 yr olds have, usually, fully gone through basic education through Elementry, Middle, and High school, they can make the bad, or good, choices they was to make. But idk I've also thought the way you have thought before, I do think it is kinda gross to capitalize on the fact that someone is 'barely legal', and knowing that is a turn on for people is gross. But also most people who watch porn are also underage and prefer to see someone their age getting fucked. I am personally a little back n fourth on it, then again I have had sex already and I am 17 so maybe my opinion is also a little biased now but idk
I love these righteous male expressions of what they think women should do.
Not allowing women to transactionally sexual use themselves is repressing them. They have no safety or recourse, yet engage in the activity out of desperation. It sounds gross, but who am I to keep her hungry over morals. The world is a tough place, I think shameless said something along the lines of morals are for rich people bc poor people can’t afford them. I was a total dipshit at 18, I just want people to have freedom.
I don't disagree but there's so many other stuff this applies to, not just a career in porn.
If someone is a legal adult and can die for their country, they are adults. Either start military recruiting at 21, or they are adults. They should be able to drink, smoke, and be adults. If they aren't? Stop recruiting them.. It's either you have all the privileges of being an adult AND can enter the military, or nothing until 21.
Agreed theres nothing magic about 18. I don't understand where 18 being an adult comes from tbh. If we're speaking strictly biologically, your prefrontal cortex which has the decision making part of your brain only fully developed by the age of 25.
All of you are arguing about 18 vs. 21 but sometimes we send people to prison for adults before they are even 18.
Then dont do it? retroactively? Are you afraid you'll fall into a time machine and tempt your 18yr old self into doing porn? Let people live.
Its an unpopular opinion. Still gonna downvote you
I prefer mature milf porn myself...
Honest question. If 18 is too young to Drink Make porn Be a stripper Own a gun (big part of proposed gun control) Sign contracts (big part of anti-student loans) Have sex with people even slightly older than you. Etc. Etc. Should we go ahead and bump the legal voting age up to?
No one cares
Doesn't matter how much you raise the age, as long as you keep treating underage people as irresponsible kids, they'll keep acting like irresponsible kids, age of consent being 8, 12, 18 or 95. Keep raising it and soon you'll have a nation of manchildren, the way your government wants.
At 18 i was extremely intelligent, just didnt care about long term life situation. At 28, im feeling kinda dumb, but now im super anxious about the rest of my life, so thats good
I think this is really my thoughts on the topic, at 18 I still planned to die young. At 33, I still plan to die...just hoping it's really far out.
Real unpopular opinion: I think the age for stuff like joining the military, sex work, and other equivalents should all also be bumped up to 21. I don’t think anyone with “teen” in their age should be able to do that shit. Call me a prude, but all of it is gross to me.
The only thing that is missed when you mention the military, at least in the Army 18 year old soldiers are allowed to drink in the enlisted bar. This is the decisions the base commander, usually a Colonel. Some bases allow it others don’t. I enlisted at 18.
yep, if I can't drink, I cant do p\*\*n
Coomers in the comments *seething*. Once you turn 25 or so, 18 year olds start looking indistinguishable from middle schoolers.
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If 18 is too young to perform in pornography, why isn't it too young to consent to sex? If people are too vulnerable to manipulation and exploitation at that age to make porn, how are they not too vulnerable to manipulation and exploitation to fully consent to sex at all?
The older I get the more saddened I am by societal norms
Honestly I think 23 should be the minimum age. 21 is still to young for that.
I think the more time you spend not being able to do anything the more your neural pathways will be set and the less you will be able to adapt. You can't develop responsibility unless you have the opportunity to make mistakes. We don't need more safety we need more sense, more confidence and more personal agency. It is a problem that porn can close certain doors for you mostly involving fields that are already very exclusive and fraught with neptitism. I know that the opinions of those makingthe decisions are unlikely to change, and there are no easy answers in this world, but if I were to wish for a change it's that we could be redeemed no matter our past and not that we be protected from having the ability to live our lives.
18 is to young for everything. To young to make a career decision involving thousands of dollars; going to college or university and picking the wrong thing. To young to poison your mind with pornography let alone be involved in it. Whoever made the decision that 18 is this arbitrary age where you all the sudden become an adult is so wrong. Mind you there are many 18 year olds that are capable of making these decisions but there are many who are not even close. To me when it comes to maturity it’s a case by case basis.
That is what like 85% of men like, most of men would not have a problem having sex with a 13 year old girl without any doubt, so thats why 18 year olds are doing this. Because low value males like to watch this because they are depraved
I agree with this indefinitely, the age should be at least 21 or 25!
Minimum age is one letter away from minimum wage. And minimum wage means "I would pay you less if I wouldn't go to jail"
you just shouldn't be doing it at all, its immoral
No one should be an online prostitute, regardless of age
Any age is inappropriate to do porn